Pachouri incident blown out of proportion: Railways

Bhopal, Oct 3 (UNI) Railway officials today said the complaint regarding Union Minister of State of Personnel and Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri allegedly crossing railway tracks, thereby violating section 147 of the Railways Act was being blown out of proportion.

A Western-Central Railway's (WCR) (Bhopal division) official told UNI that the Union Minister arrived from the Tamil Nadu Express at Itarsi station and inaugurated construction-related work at platform no five and six on September 29 as part of routine procedure.

Nothing objectionable was reported during the incident.

Some BJP workers alleged that Mr Pachouri violated section 147 of the Railways Act by crossing railway tracks and demanded a case be registered in this regard by the Railway Police Force.

WCR Security Commandant Sarika Mohan said a complaint had been received in the matter by the BJP. RPF and public prosecutor were investigating the matter. The comments of the public prosecutor would be forwarded to the Rail Manager (Bhopal).

Rail sources said the matter appeared to be a fallout of political rivalry. However, it had to be seen that it did not hamper development works in railways.

A Congress spokesperson said Mr Pachouri was keen on development of Itarsi station into a model station. He had gone to take stock of construction-related work in this view.

He said plans were afoot to build two more platforms (platform no six and seven) at Itarsi station. Besides, expansion work was underway on other platforms. The entire work would cost around Rs 92 lakh.

The spokesperson said Mr Pachouri was personally involved in getting approval for these projects. His intervention resulted in Itarsi becoming a stoppage for the Chennai-New Delhi Tamil Nadu Express.

He said it was expected that Kareli station in Narsinghpur would become a stoppage point for the Howrah Mail.